alt Hacker NewsMy uncle had the vinyl, and I got the CD a couple of years later. I see it has "manufactured by Columbia House" on the back. ;-) No loudness war back then, but the treble is brighter than most recordings of the time, leading to a potential tweaking of the knob for the album.
Some early CDs were mastered with pre-emphasis. On players that don't recognise and correct (de-emphasize) this, the sound can sound full of treble. Every hardware CD player should be able to play such discs as intended. iTunes knows about such discs and will rip them correctly, maybe Foobar2000 and CUERipper, but most other software has no clue. I know The Blue Nile "Hats" it's one such disc in my collection. I believe some pressings of The Nightfly were mastered with pre-emphasis. https://www.tnt-audio.com/vintage/procrustes2_pt1_e.html